Monday, 14 July 2014

Trivia

When you are dealing with a palace and a court as great as Versailles there is bound to be some fun facts that you may or may not have heard of.

Did you know ..

Marie Antoinette brought her own chocolate maker with her when she arrived at Versailles

Christmas presents were not a "thing" at Versailles; instead presents were exchanged on New Year's Eve when the King and his closest family could really shower their loved ones in lavish presents

When Marie Antoinette took over St. Cloud as a mean of saving money - it would have been far more expensive to have a so-called governor - she was widely opposed by especially the more traditional members of court since the Queen of France was not supposed to own properties in her own name

When a bride had to be found for Louis XV a list of 99 eligible princesses were drawn up together with their pros and cons

Madame de Pompadour's emblem was dominated by fish - a reference to her bourgeois-name of Jeanne de Poissons literally meaning "fish"

It is true that Louis XIV did not like Paris nor the Parisians. During his childhood he experienced how the city rose up against him and his mother, Anne of Austria, alongside some high-standing nobles - he would never forget nor forgive the betrayal.

The safety at Versailles was next to non-existing. Anyone, as long as they were decently dressed, could enter the palace and roam about at their own will

Louis XVI was the first King of France in about 200 years who did NOT take a mistress

Louis XIV was infamous for his enormous appetite and he could eat surprisingly much food. During the autopsy of the King it was discovered that the King not only had an unusually large stomach but also intestines twice as big as a regular man.

The total cost of Versailles is estimated to have been 116.438.892 livres or 1.285.456,000 pounds in today's money